Just Say No to the JFK Fed Conspiracy

President Kennedy was not assassinated for being anti-Fed. I don't know how much more clearly that can be said. His death on November 22nd, 1963 was a sad tragedy, but it had nothing to do with any stupid and baseless Executive Order silver certificate conspiracy.

The Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service dispelled this nonsense in a 1996 report, "Money and the Federal Reserve System: Myth and Reality" (CRS Report for Congress, No. 96-672 E) by G. Thomas Woodward. Explains Woodward about the EO 11110:

The notion that Federal Reserve Notes are especially harmful has given rise to one particular conspiracy theory relating to an executive order in 1963. According to author Jim Mars, Executive Order 11110 issued by President Kennedy on June 4, 1963 authorized the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes. Mars further asserts that after President Kennedy's assassination, the order was never carried out.

The claim is not borne out by the facts. First, E.O. 11110 had nothing to do with United States Notes, and did not affect any section of law referring to them. Second, E.O. 11110 did not anywhere mention any quantity of money; wherever the $4 billion-plus figure came from, it was not E.O. 11110. Third, The President had no authority to issue such an edict. Even utilizing the provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, the most the President could issue without statutory authorization was $3 billion.

What E.O. 11110 did was to modify previous Executive Order 10289, delegating to the Secretary of the Treasury various powers of the President. To these delegated powers, E.O. 11110 added the power to alter the supply of Silver Certificates in circulation. Executive Order 11110, therefore, did not create any new authority for the Treasury to issue notes; it only affected who could give the order, the Secretary or the President.

The reason for the move was that the President had just signed legislation repealing the Silver Purchase Act. With this repeal, the Treasury Secretary could no longer control the issue of Silver Certificates on his own authority. However, the issuance of certificates could be controlled under the President's authority. Hence, for administrative convenience, President Kennedy issued Executive Order 11110.

Ironically, the purpose of the order and the legislation was to decrease the circulation of Silver Certificates, with Federal Reserve Notes taking their place. As economic activity grew and prices rose in the 1950s and early 1960s, the need for small-denomination currency grew at the same time that the price of silver increased. The Treasury required silver for the increasing number of Silver Certificates and coins needed for transactions. But the price of silver was rapidly approaching the point that the silver in the coins and in reserve for the certificates was worth more than the face value of the money.

To conserve on the silver needs of the Treasury, President Kennedy requested legislation needed to bring the issuance of Silver Certificates to an end and to authorize the Fed to issue small denomination notes (which it could not at that time). The Fed began issuing small denomination notes almost immediately after the legislation was passed. And in October 1964, the Treasury ceased issuing Silver Certificates altogether. If anything, E.O. 11110 enhanced Federal Reserve power and did not in any way reduce it [emphasis added].

Of course, the baseless conspiracy mongers attracted to this silliness argue that the Congressional Research Service "issues unjustified opinions" all the time (so some have laughable argued with me on Facebook, etc.–no, CRS has never issued an "opinion" in its history). Since the conspiracy nuts are congenitally opposed to believing any "establishment" sources, I'll offer two more they should consider to put this craziness to rest.

If you look at a copy of EO 11110 you will find that it does not order the issuance of Silver Certificates. It orders an amendment to EO 10289 . . . Those functions did not include the power to issue Silver Certificates. The purpose of EO 11110 was to add that power to the list . . . EO 11110 did not order the printing of Silver Certificates. It ordered the amendment of a previous executive order so that the United States Code would authorize or "empower" the Secretary of the Treasury to issue Silver Certificates if the occasion should arise . . .

Let's put this issue into perspective. The proponents of the JFK Myth assert that Kennedy was assassinated because he was about to issue Silver Certificates, thereby denying the bankers their customary interest payments on the nation's currency. However, the reality was just the opposite. Previously, the President could have issued Silver Certificates on his own authority; but, with the signing of EO 11110, he delegated that authority to the Secretary of the Treasury. At that time, the Secretary of the Treasury was Douglas Dillon from a well-known and powerful banking family. That means Kennedy surrendered the power to issue Silver Certificates and gave it to a member of the banking fraternity who could do with it as he pleased "without the approval, ratification, or other action of the President." Dillon, of course, would have strong motive to preserve the dominance of Federal Reserve Notes. The theory that Kennedy was getting ready to issue Silver Certificates is without evidence or logic.

Griffin takes the CCLI to task for making up additional baseless bs, "The Christian Common Law Institute has exhaustively researched this matter through the Federal Register and Library of Congress. We can now safely conclude that this Executive Order has never been repealed, amended, or superseded by any subsequent Executive Order. In simple terms, it is still valid." To which he replies:

This is not supported by the facts. The power granted to the Secretary of Treasury to issue Silver Certificates was rescinded on September 9, 1987, by Executive Order 12608, signed by President Reagan. The official purpose of the Order was stated as "Elimination of unnecessary Executive orders and technical amendments to others." It did not affect EO 11110 directly but did affect the parent EO 10289 – along with 62 other executive orders. That is how paragraph (j) was amended to remove the power in question. This Order can be found in its entirety in the Federal Register 52 FR 34617.

Even if one won't believe CRS or Griffin, consider that Bill Still of "The Money Masters" fame debunks the JFK myth unequivocally (and to be clear, TMM itself is riddled with bad information and out of context quotations–I have been told repeatedly that Still has tried for years himself to correct the bad info but the copyright holder won't make changes; I can't confirm that):

And for the record, no, President Lincoln wasn't assassinated for trying to get rid of the Fed either which wasn't created for another half-century after his death. The best way for the free banking, sound money, anti-Fed, pro-gold, pro-Bitcoin, whatever advocates to succeed is to denounce the anti-Semitism and debunk baseless conspiracy mongering of the idiots trying to latch on to our issues.

Bradley Jansen is the director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, part of the Liberty and Privacy Network, a Washington DC-based non-profit founded in 2005 to defend privacy, civil liberties and market economics. He is an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Pr...

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Thanks, Bradley. I continue to explain the relevant facts and law to folks when I see this crazy idea broadcast on the internet, and I'm amazed at how tenaciously so many folks hold on to it no matter what, even when they have nothing to say except to try to ridicule and denounce me for "believing whatever the Fed and the banksters tell me to think" and the like, and even for being anti-freedom. It's very sad and disillusioning.

Bradley Jansen

Thanks for the support, Michael. Yes, I though adding that G. Edward Griffin and now Bill Still even say the same thing should persuade even the conspiratorially-minded ones. Based on reactions from my posting it on the End the Fed Facebook group, though, I'm (somewhat) disappointed.

A 2010 article in Research magazine discussing various controversies surrounding the Federal Reserve stated that "the wildest accusation against the Fed is that it was involved in Kennedy's assassination."[16] Critics of the theory note that Kennedy called for and signed legislation phasing out Silver Certificates in favor of Federal Reserve Notes, thereby enhancing the power of the Federal Reserve; and that Executive Order 11110 was a technicality that only delegated existing presidential powers to the Secretary of the Treasury for administrative convenience during a period of transition.[16][17]

sandydabeet

I believe that President Kennedy is one of the most inspirational men thats death will always go down in history as a tragedy. As Bradley Jansen states, there is no reason to believe the conspiracy stories that people make up to try to make sense of this tragedy. There is no reason to believe that Kennedy was trying to transfer power from the Federal Reserve to the United States Department of Treasury.

789

Bill Still, Ed Griffin, Jim Mars and hords of other conmen have been peddling their ignorance-based compilations (which they generally regurgitate from one another) for 150 years. Not one of these scumbags have ever seen the inside of a library, much less studied the subject on which they sell books. Not one of them ever bothered to read the papers of Jefferson, or Jackson, or Lincoln, or anybody else, to familiarize themselves with the views of these historic figures.

The only difference between these peddlers (from Sarah Emery to Ellen Brown) is their money-making success in selling their printed garbage

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